Arrow: Home Invasion Review (Mania.com)

By:Tim JansonReview Date: Sunday, April 28, 2013Source: Mania.com

****SPOLIERS****

After a two week hiatus Arrow returns with a busy, but enjoyable episode. Deadshot is back in town and Diggle is determined to make him pay for murdering his brother. A sting operation is setup by Diggle’s former associate of A.R.G.U.S. to trap Deadshot. Laurel is representing a family whose life savings was stolen by a corrupt financier name Edward Rasmus. However before they can testify, Rasmus sends a hitman to kill the family. The parents are shot to death but their young son escapes and Laurel takes temporary custody of the boy in her apartment.

Rather than help Diggle with Deadshot, Oliver instead goes after Rasmus, eventually forcing him to confess his crimes. The hitman though is determined to kill the boy even after he is taken to the Queen mansion for safety. Oliver must take out the murderer without his weapons and costume. Roy Harper becomes obsessed with finding The Arrow after the vigilante saved his life. On the Island, Shado and Slade Wilson are planning assault on the mercenary’s camp to rescue her father. Shado begins to train Oliver with the long bow so he can provide cover for them.

Like I said, a lot going on with four different storylines. The Deadshot storyline suffered a bit because of this. Deadshot wasn’t treated like a top villain and this part of the show seemed rush. It also didn’t seem to make a lot of sense for Deadshot to kill several A.R.G.U.S. agents and yet leave Diggle alive when he had him dead to rights because he only kills when he’s paid for it. So while this arc came off as contrived, it achieved the goal of apparently splitting Diggle from Oliver as he was upset over Oliver’s lack of support.

The Diggle split is key because combined with Roy Harper’s quest to find the Arrow, it’s moving closer and closer to his becoming Oliver’s sidekick. And frankly, at this point Roy Harper is the more interesting character of the two. Plus we had Tommy splitting with Laurel after he’s convinced she still loves Oliver, pushing him more and more towards a villainous turn. Couple this with Oliver learning the bow on the island and we had a lot of different elements coming together that helps turn this into an actual Green Arrow character rather than just this generic vigilante. But come on…enough with the “Vigilante” or “The Hood” monikers. Didn’t they learn anything from calling Superman “The Blur’ for all those years? Can we please just call him Green Arrow and be done with it?